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Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. 



Just a couple of questions. You, I believe, have been in Alaska 

 for the last 10 days, have visited the Pribilofs, you were in Nome 

 for the Arctic Research Commission Meeting, and you've been here 

 at the University of Alaska for the Conference on Arctic Policy. 

 Alaskans have always been a little sensitive to the emphasis of the 

 State Department and the National Science Foundation on Antarc- 

 tica, when we in Alaska see the Arctic from a perspective of people, 

 resources, development and lots of questions but not very many an- 

 swers. And I'm wondering, if, as a consequence of your trip, what 

 kind of a message you might take back to convince some of your 

 colleagues that much of the future wealth of North America lies in 

 the Arctic. And we've got some questions that need scientific atten- 

 tion. 



Secretary Bohlen. Well, I would say first that it's become in- 

 creasingly obvious in the last few years that the Antarctic is vitally 

 important as a scientific laboratory to determine what is happening 

 to the global environment, and of course the discovery of the ozone 

 hole there was a prime example of this, and our ability to take ice 

 corings from the glaciers. All of this is showing what we can learn 

 from the Antarctic in terms of the vital processes that affect the 

 globe. Having said that, I'm convinced after this trip that our na- 

 tions — that the Arctic is far more important to our nation's vital in- 

 terests. And not only are we very close to Russia and the contami- 

 nants that are being discussed today, but there are many other 

 processes that we need to know much better, much more about in 

 the Arctic, and above all, we have in the Arctic people that have 

 lived here for generations. You don't find that in the Antarctic. And 

 for these and many other reasons, I think we need to greatly in- 

 crease our focus on the Arctic. I can't speak for the National 

 Science Foundation but I can certainly speak for the State Depart- 

 ment, that we are going to reorient our thinking in this direction. 



Senator MURKOWSKI. Earlier this month I had an occasion to 

 have a meeting with the Russian Ambassador to the United States, 

 Ambassador Lukin. And yesterday I was given a copy of a letter, 

 I might add it was in Russian, which purported to be an official 

 policy statement of Russia relative to the subject matter of our 

 hearing. And Mr. Garman tells me that it was translated last 

 evening and that you might have had a chance to briefly scan it. 

 We're going to enter that letter into the record. I'm not going to 

 read it; it's rather lengthy. But I'd wonder if you'd care to comment 

 on it at this time. 



Secretary Bohlen. Well, I was encouraged by it. I think the 

 most — maybe I could read the most pertinent paragraph. Toward 

 the end of the letter, the Ambassador, Ambassador Lukin, empha- 

 sizes that "Russia would be extremely interested in cooperation 

 with the United States in the field of monitoring of environment 

 in Arctic on bilateral basis, as well as in the framework of multilat- 

 eral cooperation of Arctic states, in particular, on the program of 

 Arctic monitoring and assessment." That's the AMAP program I 

 mentioned earlier. That is certainly consistent with all the discus- 

 sions we have had with the Russians. I think there is going to be 

 a good deal of interest in the kind of cooperation that is needed. 



